She delivered a report on grooming to a Birmingham City Council child sexual exploitation inquiry.

The report includes interviews with 35 victims and several sex attackers from Muslim communities across Britain.

Ms Gohir said the gang rape of a teenage Asian girl happened in Birmingham. The son was wearing his school uniform.

Ms Gohir challenged the view that grooming was mainly carried out by gangs of Asian men abusing white girls, as in high-profile cases in Rochdale and Oxford.

She said girls were more likely to be targeted by people of the same ethnic background.

“She said male attitudes needed to change as they did not see what they did as rape”

They were particularly vulnerable to abuse as they could be blackmailed into keeping quiet because of the risk of “bringing shame” on a community, she said.

The report claims when abuse is revealed some families send the girl abroad or arrange a wedding to get rid of the problem.

Ms Gohir said: “The biggest barrier we need to address is the shame and honour card. They would rather protect the honour of the family and community than report an offender and protect other girls, as well as get victims the counselling and help they need.”

She said male attitudes needed to change as they did not see what they did as rape.

Inquiry chairman Anita Ward added: “We need to recognise that it is not only Asian men grooming white girls.

“The victims do not come from any one particular culture or community, and neither do the perpetrators.”